Highlights
• In March 2018, approximately 2.55 million people were food insecure1 , down from 3.4 million as from August 2017. The record-high March to May rains resulted in significant improvement of food security and nutrition status in the second quarter of 2018. Massive flooding across 40 out of 47 counties, affected 800,000 people and displaced 291,171 (approximately 47% children) and 186 killed by mid-May 2018
• A total of 114,543 acutely malnourished children were admitted for treatment from 1 January to 31 May 2018 with UNICEF support.
• Over 274,948 people in drought, cholera and flood-affected counties benefitted from permanent and temporary access to safe water, and 45,350 people from the distribution of non-food items with UNICEF support.
• In the first half of the year, a total of 99,831 children under five accessed integrated package of health interventions including treatment for diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia with UNICEF support • In 2018, UNICEF requires US$ 33.7 million for its Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) Appeal. The 2018 HAC has a funding gap of 70%. In early June, UNICEF received USD 2,825,829 CERF funding for NFIs, Health, WASH and Child Protection floods response.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
During the first quarter of 2018, Kenya continued to face the effects of the severe drought from the previous year due to consecutive poor rainy seasons. High staple food prices and low livestock prices continued to increase household food insecurity across most pastoral areas. In March 2018, approximately 2.55 million people were food insecure3 , down from 3.4 million from August 2017. Acute malnutrition remained at Critical levels (Phase 4; GAM WHZ 15.0 – 29.9 percent) in Turkana Central, North, West and South, Tana River, Wajir North, North Horr and Laisamis sub-counties. Counties including Isiolo and Kajiado reported a Serious nutrition situation (Phase 3; GAM WHZ 10.0 -14.9 percent)
Significant improvement in food security and nutrition status was reported in the second quarter of 2018, however, the 2018 Long Rains Assessment (LRA) which will be conducted in July 2018 will give updated figures of the food-insecure population and caseloads of malnourished children. The improved status is attributed to early onset of the March-April May (MAM) 2018 seasonal rainfall coupled with the good rainfall performance during the months of April and May, which significantly contributed to vegetation regeneration and recharge of open water sources, impacting positively on crop and livestock production and reduced trekking distances to water points in most Arid and Semi-Arid counties.
With generally lower staple food prices, better milk access at the household level and rising incomes, food access steadily improved across most areas of Kenya by May 2018, however, some poor households still experienced Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes in Tana River, Garissa, Turkana, Isiolo, and Kajiado. Going forward, the food security outlook for the country for the June to September period shows significant improvement.
The record-high March to May rains resulted in massive flooding across 40 out of 47 counties, with 800,000 people affected, 291,171 displaced (approximately 47% children) and 186 killed by mid-May 2018. Of the children displaced, about 18,725 (42 per cent girls) required child protection interventions and about 46,000 children could not access schooling by midMay as 329 schools were hosting people displaced by the floods. The key floods response needs as prioritized by the Kenya Humanitarian Partnership Team were WASH, Health, Shelter/NFIs and Protection, however, timely emergency assistance to affected populations in the most hard-to-reach areas was compromised as major roads and school infrastructure were damaged.
The proportion of sampled children under 5 years at risk of being acutely malnourished increased from 19.5 percent in April to 21.8 in May in Samburu County, which was associated with a rise in cases of diarrhoea in children because of contamination of open water sources due to the floods.
The flooding compounded ongoing disease outbreaks, with 5,470 Cholera cases (78 deaths and Case Fatality Rate of 1.4%) reported across 19 counties; 111 Rift valley Fever human cases (14 deaths) reported across Wajir (75), Marsabit (35) and Siaya (1) counties; s and 1,465 Chikungunya cases reported by 25 June. By end June, Cholera outbreak was active in eight counties (Garissa, Tana River, Turkana, West Pokot, Meru, Mombasa, Kilifi and Isiolo). Additionally, 24 Measles cases were reported in Wajir countyh in February and a circulating vaccine derived type 2 polio virus was found in a sewage sample in Nairobi county in May 2018.
In the first half of the year, drought-related inter-ethnic conflicts and insecurity in Garissa, Mandera, Turkana, Samburu, Baringo, West Pokot, Wajir, Tana River intermittently affected access to learning and constrained emergency education assessments and interventions. In Baringo County, 133 schools were affected and 20 schools were closed in February, affecting access for approximately 30,000 learners. On 12 February, a terrorist-related attack by armed militants led to the death of two non-local teachers in Qarsa Primary School, Wajir County, resulted in 900 non-local teachers leaving Wajir county, negatively impacting learning for approximately 45,000 children due to the significant shortage of teachers.
A sudden influx of asylum seekers to Moyale, Marsabit, from Ethiopia was reported in March 2018 with a total of 10,557 people (over 80% women and children) registered at the peak of the crisis. By end May 2018, Kenya hosts a total of 468,910 refugees and asylum seekers (208,616 in Dadaab, 186,088 in Kakuma, 69,996 in Nairobi and 4,210 in Moyale) , of which 2,392 children (1,504 boys and 888 girls) are new arrivals to Kakuma refugee camp in 2018 (75% from South Sudan).
